Finally got one of the other new pickups into the "club" this morning even though it was totally unplanned. Had hacked away at the Merlin again this morning finally replacing the rusty, sticky FD shift cable. Previously I had swapped on some new Wickwerks 53/34 chainrings, a new cassette, and a new chain. I also flatted on this last week with the old tires on it so put on some Conti 5000s with latex tubes. I also swapped back in the original Dura Ace/Easton seatpost that came with it and put on a used Fizik Kurve Chameleon I had gotten of Ebay. Chased the shifting tune around a bit this morning and then while still not that happy with it I took it out for a little test ride. About four miles into the ride I realized I was moving along pretty good on it and decided to see just what kind of pace I could run on it. Finished up with 24.12 miles, 666 ft of climbing, in 1:15:27 for an avg pace of 19.2 mph. Fastest avg pace of the year. I hadn't really planned to ride fast so I went out with really diluted gatorade in my bottles and no real breakfast. This is a good ol' bike though and really does suit me well and feels good under me. Still don't feel like I have any real power though once the road turns uphill a tad.

Here's the bike as it's now set up. It is 18 lbs 4 ozs as in this pic.